Far Cry 2

Far Cry 2 the "true" sequel to Far Cry however the Characters and places from the first game are nowhere to be seen Crisis was closer to the original than Far Cry 2 is, meh, hay ho to business then.

In Far Cry 2 you are given the option to chose a character to enter the game as. I don't know if there are and advantages or disadvantages to selecting different characters or not but they are all different ages and from different parts of the world (No Englishman though).

The guys you didn't pick may become your buddies after you met them in the world.

The world of Far Cry 2 is a sandbox set in the middle of Africa where two factions fight it out for control of the small country, there are a number of side missions to do as well as the main missions, your overall objective is to find and kill an arms dealer called the Jackal through out the game The Jackal pops up, normally helping you in some way, he has also recorded tapes which you can find during missions in which he spouts off about shit in a Marlin Brando Apocalypse Now kind of way.

The game starts with you in the back of a cab on your way into town you spend a few minuets driving along while the caby gives you a running commentary of the events unfolding at the sides of the road, once you get to town the screen starts to go yellowish and blurry, then you pass out in the back of the cab, only to wake up in your room with the jackal rifling through your stuff reading all those secret documents that have burn after reading on them and learning all there is to know about you and your mission, He then informs you you have Malaria and your likely to die (Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to drink from the bog water at the airport after all?).

After telling you that he can't be killed and also that he is the guy who says who lives and dies. he leaves your side arm and Machete and walks out just before you once again pass out.

You later wake to find that a battle is raging out side and decide that its time you get the hell out of dodge after gathering up your stuff control is handed over to the player and you get your first taste of combat.

After you shoot your way out of town and get half way across a bridge you collapse and attempt to scoff some malaria pill but alas the pot is empty leaving you to face plant and take a short nap until you once again wake up with a dude telling you your his bitch and you have to what he says.

The dude sends you out on an errand to learn the ropes which once complete allows you to free roam the map at you leisure.

Vehicles: there are a number of different vehicles to drive around and it is essential that you learn and get comfortable driving them around I would recommend the pick-up with the mounted gun on the top as you are gonna need it when busting through check-points and to defend yourself on the road, In Far Cry 2 EVERY one is out to kill you even if your working for them, I guess they couldn't be arsed to program in friendly AI for the factions. Off roading can be useful to get around the aforementioned check-points but it can be frustrating as you WILL be driving slowly to avoid rocks and trees that will stop you dead and even get you stuck if your not careful.

Combat: Combat is what you would expect from an FPS and sometimes annoying when you have shot the shit out of someone and they refuse to go down.

Graphics: As you would expect from a next generation game the Graphics are top notch.

Overall Far Cry 2 is a good and long distraction from life and you can have hours of fun and frustration in equal measure the fact that something as simple as getting from A to B can quickly become a bullet ridden roller-coaster of pain can be annoying but as long as you plan your journey you can avoid most of that. (Gunning it through check-points is not the way to go stop and kill the bastards before moving on otherwise they will just chase after you in their own pick-up trucks)